Welcome to the "get all the diehard fans left over from WrestleMania in the same building and watch the fun that ensues" edition of The Wrestling List. I was entertained as could be by last night's Raw. That crowd was amazing last night. It felt like watching an old school ECW show with the chants and loud pops.
There were two major points about the show last night. Brock Lesnar returned to WWE. The rumors have been flying for several days that he might even appear at WrestleMania. He obviously didn't. I did laugh at the fact that during Cena's promo to close the show, Cena was calling for The Rock to talk to him and congratulate him. The fans knew what they wanted. They had all heard the rumors and were chanting "we want Lesnar" and it was loud. Lesnar's music hit and the roof blew off the buliding. Lesnar made his way to the ring and got another chant as he walked around ringside. I won't say what it was but think a surprised reaction chant. LOL. Lesnar walks into the ring and Cena goes for a handshake. Lesnar grabs him and puts him for the F5 and the fans go nuts. F5 lands and Lesnar makes his big return. It should be pointed out that it was ten years ago that Lesnar made his debut for WWE. He debuted on the Raw the night after WrestleMania X-8. I am not a Lesnar fan at all. That is no secret. I still am not. However, seeing that crowd pop and react so huge like it was something from back in the day was just great. I had goosebumps watching those fans just going nuts. So, what about Brock? How they use him for the next year will be interesting. The fact that Lesnar is back in WWE is quite amazing considering all the bad blood between him and the company since 2004. It involved him leaving when it was time for him to start putting people over and also involved legal action when he decided he wanted to wrestle after his football career didn't work out. WWE made him sign a hefty no compete when he left cause of how he just up and left them. What kind of Brock are we going to have behind the scenes there?
Point two was the fan backlash over the Daniel Bryan squash at WrestleMania. Fans were furious at WrestleMania over the squash to the point where stuff was flying through the air. The word seems to be that the reason it was done was to do a shock moment to start the show off. Well, it shocked people. Shocked people into a near riot. Last night was the opportunity for those fans there in Miami to continue to voice their frustration. They voiced it...all night and it was tremendous. There were Daniel Bryan chants all night and the crowd turned "yes, yes, yes" into the chant of the night. This wasn't just a small section of fans. It was most of the building. It was loud! Sheamus was brought out and introduced as the new champion last night and the fans got to take out some more frustration on him. It wasn't the fans didn't like Sheamus. They were still using him as a vocal target. Del Rio made his return during that segment and the fans still chanted Daniel Bryan's name all through it. Well, except when they jumped in for some fun Del Rio chants too. They cut backstage after the segment to show Bryan and AJ watching on the monitor and you could hear the huge pop in the building as it appeared on the screen for the crowd. Daniel Bryan chants and 'yes, yes, yes" chants were ringing out during John Cena's promo too and also The Rock's. After the show, Bryan wrestled in a multi tag match and got a HUGE pop as he was introduced. I have seen video of it and it was awesome to watch the fans chanting "yes" every time Bryan pointed up. It was tremendous. He did a promo for the crowd after the show thanking them saying the previous night was the worst night of his career but that this "yes" thing by the fans had likely gotten him a t-shirt deal. He kept playing heel kicking AJ out of there to the back. He did the "yes" pose as he left to run to the back as the fans went nuts. I said it already that I was annoyed for the whole first hour of WrestleMania over that finish. It took the cell to get me back on the right page. Fans were pumped for it and were chanting. These fans have been vocal about it as well. It was a bad idea. I see that they wanted to go for a surprise but that wasn't the match to do it with. The fans didn't want it and they about had a riot on their hands. This could end up being a really good thing for Daniel Bryan cause now the fans have gotten vocal for him.
What about Rock? Well, his promo last night teased that he was looking for WWE championship gold in the future. Rock will be sticking around from time to time like he has done over the last year. When his schedule allows, he'll be back. I've already heard rumblings of people curious if we'll see something between Rock and Brock since we are coming up on the ten year anniversary of their match. Just speculation of people wondering. Nobody really knows anything at this point what lies in wait for either of them. We're all just waiting.
I mentioned the crowd last night but they again they were just amazing. Off the charts awesome. They made the show so much fun. You always get that on the Raw after Mania cause it's held in the same city and the diehards stick around for one more day. You're also going to be a different reaction about things too from that crowd. It really reminded me of an ECW crowd. They were just awesome all night. The sad thing is that next week we go back to the normal crowds. Nothing against those crowds but you've got all the diehards packed into a venue last night and they're going to make a lot of noise. Chanting all night and they were just having a great time.
Other thoughts on Raw. The artist formerly known as Albert and A-Train made his return as Lord Tensai. Alex Riley was the one fed to him. I've had this question for a year now but who did Alex Riley make mad behind the scenes? He had all sorts of momentum a year ago and now he is a squash guy whenever he does appear on TV. Punk and Henry was what it was. Big reaction for Punk which was awesome. Colt Cabana chants from the crowd always make me smile. The Jericho attack with the alcohol reminded me of the Punk/Raven feud from Ring Of Honor.
Chief Jay Strongbow has passed away. No word on details. Jim Ross mentioned his passing earlier today on his Twitter account.
Vince Russo will be doing a live You Shoot interview for Kayfabe Commentaries. Wow, does that sound dangerous. Have I mentioned that Russo is gone from TNA? Have I done a List since that happened? I don't think I have. Vince Russo is gone from the company. He has been for probably a month or so now.
WWE Classics On Demand did a great Legends roundtable show recently talking about celebrities in wrestling over the years. The panel was Jim Ross, Gene Okerlund, Michael Hayes, Roddy Piper, and Diamond Dallas Page. Now, that is a story telling panel and they did not disappoint. Speaking of Russo, things got interesting and a bit heated when David Arquette's name was brought up. JR was pretty vocal against it. Page was someone that stuck up for Arquette. Not because of the idea. He said the idea was terrible. He just didn't want Arquette taking the heat over it. Page said that Arquette got told that he was winning the title and wanted nothing to do with it. He was a huge fan and had all the respect for the history of the business. He did not want to do the finish and told Page that he didn't want to. He obviously had no say so about it. One thing that he mentioned that I've heard for several years is that Arquette gave all the money that he made in wrestling to the widow of Brian Pillman. He didn't keep any of the money. Very interesting roundtable. I don't think it is airing anymore on Classics but it was a really good one.
The WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony special aired last night as well. Edge's speech was just awesome. A guy that grew up loving this business and had to quit way before he was ready. You could see the emotion in him and he teared up a bunch during his speech and also at his appearance at WrestleMania. The Horsemen speech was great as well. Wild to see Ric Flair back on the WWE stage. Feels like I haven't seen him in forever cause I haven't watched TNA very much lately obviously. Great speech given by all. Tyson had fun up there and is a big fan as well of the business. He was taking pictures with some of his idols over the WrestleMania weekend that he ran into. Many more inducted but we didn't see them on the special. Wait for the DVD next month or for the ceremony to air on Classics a few months down the line.
Anyway, that is it. Just thought I'd type up some thoughts on last night's Raw since it was so fun. Have a great day! Take care and God bless!!
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Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Thoughts On WrestleMania XXVIII - April 2, 2012
And that is why I love wrestling. There was one moment last night during that Undertaker/Triple H match that was defining for me. I'm talking about the spot where Shawn nailed the superkick on to Undertaker which turned him right into a pedigree from Triple H. Triple H goes for the cover and Undertaker kicks out of it. Kicks out of both finishers. The crowd jumps up at the near fall. Shawn falls into the corner with a look of shock on his face. The crowd is going absolutely crazy for it. That moment right there was that reminder on why I love wrestling. Sure, it may have gotten stale lately and there aren't near as many great moments as we'd like them to be. They're there though. It was there last night. That moment right there last night was one of them for me.
Last night was WrestleMania XXVIII. Super Bowl night from Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida in front of 78,323 fans. This was a record attendance for that building. The show was outdoors which gave it a really cool visual. The sun setting over the stadium looked really amazing. The set up of the building looked good. The stage had an incredible screen for all their video and graphics. There was some criticism from some of the live fans about the palm trees that had to be set up to accommodate for the staging. It blocked the view for some fans and there were a lot of anti palm tree chants before the show got started.
I'm going to go in order of matches and just give thoughts on each match. The show started with Lilian Garcia singing the national anthem which is always awesome. The production of it to go with it looked great including the jet flyover. Hot crowd to start the show. The show opens with the World title match. Sheamus was the first one down the ramp. Then, Daniel Bryan made his way to the ring with AJ with him. One thing that I noticed was the big reaction that he was getting as they showed him making way down the ramp. As the bell rang, there was a ton of noise being made in the building. Bryan and AJ kiss. Bryan turns around and gets kicked right in the face. Sheamus makes the pin and wins the World title. 18 second match! LAME!!! My first thought was that they just killed the crowd. The crowd was into Daniel Bryan. Lots of chants for him before the show and throughout the rest of the night. Why did they have to squash him? Couldn't they have given at least five minutes for goodness sakes? This honestly got me off to a bad start too and left a bad taste in my mouth. If you remember, this match took place last year for the US title but was bumped to the dark match. This year, it is a squash match. I was annoyed for the rest of the first hour of the show. I really like the Daniel Bryan/AJ storyline. They are the modern version of a 1986 Savage and Elizabeth. The sweet nice girl dating a guy who is nothing but a jerk to her. Crowd likes her but boo him. I love the storyline and it's one of the things I really will tune in for. Plus, I like AJ. She is super cute. LOL. The next match is Randy Orton and Kane. I'm thinking, great, I'm all excited for this opener and now I get probably fifteen minutes of Orton and Kane. I actually didn't think the crowd level really got back at full height until the Cell match which led the second hour off. I'll get there though. Kane gets a win on Orton which did surprise me. It was a solid match. I just was still annoyed over the first match. Intercontinental title match was next with Cody Rhodes defending against Big Show. Lots of cheers for Cody from the fans. Show got the win and became the new champion after the knockout punch. Solid match. Still annoyed from the opener. Divas match next and I was curious to see how this went. Beth Phoenix and Eve taking on Kelly Kelly and Extra's Maria Menounos. Maria had reportedly broken two ribs on Dancing With The Stars. I didn't actually expect her to get much in ring action and then she ends up being in the ring the most. I thought they worked around it really well. Several bear hug type holds that look good but protect her. She still got knocked around a lot and I'm thinking she's stronger than I am doing this with those ribs. Kelly got the hot tag and after ramming the two heels together, Maria did a nice rollup to pin Beth Phoenix. Kudos to Maria Menounos for doing that when she clearly could have said she was hurt and didn't want to do as much.
Let's move to hour two. Triple H vs. Undertaker in the cell with Shawn Michaels as the referee. This was all of hour two! It was a fast hour two as well. Jim Ross gets to call the match!! That was fantastic!! Big entrance for Shawn and he looked happy to be back on the big stage. Triple H's entrance looked cool as did Undertaker's. I was waiting to see the reaction when Taker pulled that hood off knowing that he had short hair now. The hood came off and there was a blast of thunder and a look of wow from Triple H. The match got underway and the drama in this match was off the charts. Triple H started doing what he did last year. Pounding Undertaker with a chair over and over. Telling Shawn to stop the match or he was going to end him. Taker kept telling Shawn do not stop this match. Shawn kept getting put in a bad spot not knowing what to do. The sledgehammer gets into play but Shawn pulls it away from him before he can use it. Triple H continues to tell him to stop the match. Shawn goes to do it but Taker puts Shawn in the arm submission to stop it. The only thing that Taker could do to keep it going was to take matters into his own hands. Triple H then made the save for Shawn who is then down for a while. Triple H then got caught in the submission and was barely hanging on. Charles Robinson makes his way out to ref the match and Undertaker chokeslams him to the mat. Another referee out. Undertaker goes for the tombstone but Triple H slipped out. Taker runs right into a superkick from Shawn and then turns to catch a pedigree from Triple H. Two finishers and then Taker kicks out before three. Shawn collapses in the corner not believing what is going on. The crowd is going NUTS!! Triple H then grabbed the sledgehammer again and Shawn tried to stop it. Shawn gets tossed to the floor by Triple H. Undertaker then sits up and looks square at Triple H who gets a look of fear on his face. It was awesome. Taker goes on BIG offense. Finishers continue to get kicked out of. There was a moment where Triple H was desperate and went to crawl to the sledgehammer and Taker stepped on the sledgehammer preventing him from picking it up. Triple H's turn to take repeated chair shots and dishes out some major payback from earlier. Shawn at this point is yelling at Triple H to just stay down. Shawn's facials were incredible in this match as he looked so torn through the whole match on what to do and completely in shock of what was occurring. Triple H grabbed the sledgehammer again and took a very weak swing at Undertaker who caught it. He pulled it away and then Triple H gave him a defiant DX chop. Undertaker nails Triple H right in the head with the sledgehammer. Picks him up and tombstones him. One, two, three, and 20-0 goes The Undertaker. Off the charts drama in this match and the crowd was going nuts for it. After the match, Shawn helped up Undertaker to his feet. They hugged one another. Shawn and Undertaker both help Triple H to his feet and walk him to the back. It was a huge moment watching these three icons of the business walking to the back together.
Hour three started with the Hall Of Fame inductees all being introduced on stage. Great to see all of them. Four Horsemen at WrestleMania. Got to love that! Edge was the last introduced and got his music played for him. He was standing there taking it in with tears in his eyes. Great moment. Next was the Team Johnny and Team Teddy tag match. It was fine. I haven't been into this storyline at all so I wasn't very excited about it. Even less excited when Team Johnny won meaning we get more Johnny Ace. The finish had Eve costing the match for Zack Ryder. Then, after the match she laid him out. Can they do any worse booking for Ryder? They have stopped his momentum completely. He's late 90's clueless Sting. He was one of the hottest things they had going and now they've booked him into oblivion. WWE title match was next with CM Punk and Chris Jericho. Loved the entrances for both of them. Pyro was set off for Punk outside the stadium. Things really picked up at the end with the submission exchanges and the crowd was eating it up. Punk gets the win with a clean tap out and the crowd went nuts for it. Big win for Punk and he remains WWE champion. After that, we got a dance segment for Brodus Clay. My thought was I'm glad they went with the Bryan squash so we could get this segment into the show. Ugh!!!!
Main event time with John Cena and The Rock. If you didn't see the "We Are Young" promo video for them. You need to look it up on You Tube. Great stuff!! MGK came out and performed a song to intro Cena. He got on the mic and started talking bad on Rock and good on Cena. Fueled the boos and they booed as he finished. Cena comes out and gets BOOED. One person there said they had never heard boos so loud. New merchandise as Cena will apparently be in green for the near future. Flo Rida performs for The Rock and then Rock makes his way out to a huge ovation. What star power feel it had to it. The match was fun and the crowd was really into it. Ringside was jumping up on the big moves and happenings. Loud chants and there were so many chants going that it was hard to tell what was being said. Interesting that the match started with the Hogan/Rock spots. Stare at one another and look at the crowd on opposite sides. Then, the tie ups and power shove downs. Rock hit the people's elbow which got the crowd up. Impressive spot where Rock went for the high crossed body and Cena rolled through picking him right up into the AA. Rock kicks out to a huge pop from the fans. Cena looks stunned over Rock kicking out. Rock decides to go for a people's elbow of his own. After bouncing off the ropes, Rock catches him into a Rock Bottom. Three count and The Rock gets the win to a huge reaction from the fans. Cena rolled out to the ramp sitting there looking frustrated as Rock celebrated in the ring. Fun match.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. The crowd made this show ever better. When you have a good crowd, it can add so much and this crowd was ready for this show. Makes me wonder how much better it could have been if they hadn't done the squash in the opener. It seriously took me an hour of the show to recover from that annoyance. Good WrestleMania and there is obviously good and bad on the show just like anything. That is it for today. Have a great day. Take care and God bless!!
Last night was WrestleMania XXVIII. Super Bowl night from Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida in front of 78,323 fans. This was a record attendance for that building. The show was outdoors which gave it a really cool visual. The sun setting over the stadium looked really amazing. The set up of the building looked good. The stage had an incredible screen for all their video and graphics. There was some criticism from some of the live fans about the palm trees that had to be set up to accommodate for the staging. It blocked the view for some fans and there were a lot of anti palm tree chants before the show got started.
I'm going to go in order of matches and just give thoughts on each match. The show started with Lilian Garcia singing the national anthem which is always awesome. The production of it to go with it looked great including the jet flyover. Hot crowd to start the show. The show opens with the World title match. Sheamus was the first one down the ramp. Then, Daniel Bryan made his way to the ring with AJ with him. One thing that I noticed was the big reaction that he was getting as they showed him making way down the ramp. As the bell rang, there was a ton of noise being made in the building. Bryan and AJ kiss. Bryan turns around and gets kicked right in the face. Sheamus makes the pin and wins the World title. 18 second match! LAME!!! My first thought was that they just killed the crowd. The crowd was into Daniel Bryan. Lots of chants for him before the show and throughout the rest of the night. Why did they have to squash him? Couldn't they have given at least five minutes for goodness sakes? This honestly got me off to a bad start too and left a bad taste in my mouth. If you remember, this match took place last year for the US title but was bumped to the dark match. This year, it is a squash match. I was annoyed for the rest of the first hour of the show. I really like the Daniel Bryan/AJ storyline. They are the modern version of a 1986 Savage and Elizabeth. The sweet nice girl dating a guy who is nothing but a jerk to her. Crowd likes her but boo him. I love the storyline and it's one of the things I really will tune in for. Plus, I like AJ. She is super cute. LOL. The next match is Randy Orton and Kane. I'm thinking, great, I'm all excited for this opener and now I get probably fifteen minutes of Orton and Kane. I actually didn't think the crowd level really got back at full height until the Cell match which led the second hour off. I'll get there though. Kane gets a win on Orton which did surprise me. It was a solid match. I just was still annoyed over the first match. Intercontinental title match was next with Cody Rhodes defending against Big Show. Lots of cheers for Cody from the fans. Show got the win and became the new champion after the knockout punch. Solid match. Still annoyed from the opener. Divas match next and I was curious to see how this went. Beth Phoenix and Eve taking on Kelly Kelly and Extra's Maria Menounos. Maria had reportedly broken two ribs on Dancing With The Stars. I didn't actually expect her to get much in ring action and then she ends up being in the ring the most. I thought they worked around it really well. Several bear hug type holds that look good but protect her. She still got knocked around a lot and I'm thinking she's stronger than I am doing this with those ribs. Kelly got the hot tag and after ramming the two heels together, Maria did a nice rollup to pin Beth Phoenix. Kudos to Maria Menounos for doing that when she clearly could have said she was hurt and didn't want to do as much.
Let's move to hour two. Triple H vs. Undertaker in the cell with Shawn Michaels as the referee. This was all of hour two! It was a fast hour two as well. Jim Ross gets to call the match!! That was fantastic!! Big entrance for Shawn and he looked happy to be back on the big stage. Triple H's entrance looked cool as did Undertaker's. I was waiting to see the reaction when Taker pulled that hood off knowing that he had short hair now. The hood came off and there was a blast of thunder and a look of wow from Triple H. The match got underway and the drama in this match was off the charts. Triple H started doing what he did last year. Pounding Undertaker with a chair over and over. Telling Shawn to stop the match or he was going to end him. Taker kept telling Shawn do not stop this match. Shawn kept getting put in a bad spot not knowing what to do. The sledgehammer gets into play but Shawn pulls it away from him before he can use it. Triple H continues to tell him to stop the match. Shawn goes to do it but Taker puts Shawn in the arm submission to stop it. The only thing that Taker could do to keep it going was to take matters into his own hands. Triple H then made the save for Shawn who is then down for a while. Triple H then got caught in the submission and was barely hanging on. Charles Robinson makes his way out to ref the match and Undertaker chokeslams him to the mat. Another referee out. Undertaker goes for the tombstone but Triple H slipped out. Taker runs right into a superkick from Shawn and then turns to catch a pedigree from Triple H. Two finishers and then Taker kicks out before three. Shawn collapses in the corner not believing what is going on. The crowd is going NUTS!! Triple H then grabbed the sledgehammer again and Shawn tried to stop it. Shawn gets tossed to the floor by Triple H. Undertaker then sits up and looks square at Triple H who gets a look of fear on his face. It was awesome. Taker goes on BIG offense. Finishers continue to get kicked out of. There was a moment where Triple H was desperate and went to crawl to the sledgehammer and Taker stepped on the sledgehammer preventing him from picking it up. Triple H's turn to take repeated chair shots and dishes out some major payback from earlier. Shawn at this point is yelling at Triple H to just stay down. Shawn's facials were incredible in this match as he looked so torn through the whole match on what to do and completely in shock of what was occurring. Triple H grabbed the sledgehammer again and took a very weak swing at Undertaker who caught it. He pulled it away and then Triple H gave him a defiant DX chop. Undertaker nails Triple H right in the head with the sledgehammer. Picks him up and tombstones him. One, two, three, and 20-0 goes The Undertaker. Off the charts drama in this match and the crowd was going nuts for it. After the match, Shawn helped up Undertaker to his feet. They hugged one another. Shawn and Undertaker both help Triple H to his feet and walk him to the back. It was a huge moment watching these three icons of the business walking to the back together.
Hour three started with the Hall Of Fame inductees all being introduced on stage. Great to see all of them. Four Horsemen at WrestleMania. Got to love that! Edge was the last introduced and got his music played for him. He was standing there taking it in with tears in his eyes. Great moment. Next was the Team Johnny and Team Teddy tag match. It was fine. I haven't been into this storyline at all so I wasn't very excited about it. Even less excited when Team Johnny won meaning we get more Johnny Ace. The finish had Eve costing the match for Zack Ryder. Then, after the match she laid him out. Can they do any worse booking for Ryder? They have stopped his momentum completely. He's late 90's clueless Sting. He was one of the hottest things they had going and now they've booked him into oblivion. WWE title match was next with CM Punk and Chris Jericho. Loved the entrances for both of them. Pyro was set off for Punk outside the stadium. Things really picked up at the end with the submission exchanges and the crowd was eating it up. Punk gets the win with a clean tap out and the crowd went nuts for it. Big win for Punk and he remains WWE champion. After that, we got a dance segment for Brodus Clay. My thought was I'm glad they went with the Bryan squash so we could get this segment into the show. Ugh!!!!
Main event time with John Cena and The Rock. If you didn't see the "We Are Young" promo video for them. You need to look it up on You Tube. Great stuff!! MGK came out and performed a song to intro Cena. He got on the mic and started talking bad on Rock and good on Cena. Fueled the boos and they booed as he finished. Cena comes out and gets BOOED. One person there said they had never heard boos so loud. New merchandise as Cena will apparently be in green for the near future. Flo Rida performs for The Rock and then Rock makes his way out to a huge ovation. What star power feel it had to it. The match was fun and the crowd was really into it. Ringside was jumping up on the big moves and happenings. Loud chants and there were so many chants going that it was hard to tell what was being said. Interesting that the match started with the Hogan/Rock spots. Stare at one another and look at the crowd on opposite sides. Then, the tie ups and power shove downs. Rock hit the people's elbow which got the crowd up. Impressive spot where Rock went for the high crossed body and Cena rolled through picking him right up into the AA. Rock kicks out to a huge pop from the fans. Cena looks stunned over Rock kicking out. Rock decides to go for a people's elbow of his own. After bouncing off the ropes, Rock catches him into a Rock Bottom. Three count and The Rock gets the win to a huge reaction from the fans. Cena rolled out to the ramp sitting there looking frustrated as Rock celebrated in the ring. Fun match.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. The crowd made this show ever better. When you have a good crowd, it can add so much and this crowd was ready for this show. Makes me wonder how much better it could have been if they hadn't done the squash in the opener. It seriously took me an hour of the show to recover from that annoyance. Good WrestleMania and there is obviously good and bad on the show just like anything. That is it for today. Have a great day. Take care and God bless!!
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